


the only price you pay is a heart full of tears

by thedreamsteam



Series: the dream team fics [51]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:07:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28017468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedreamsteam/pseuds/thedreamsteam
Summary: The burn marks that sat on his face were light.They weren’t heavy like they usually are. On the rare chances that someone manages to get the body out of the lava, they’re usually burnt to a crisp, ready to fall apart at a moments notice.or , tubbo knows what dream did, and he’s ready to make him pay
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Floris | Fundy & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Ranboo & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Sapnap & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Series: the dream team fics [51]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913893
Comments: 7
Kudos: 229





	the only price you pay is a heart full of tears

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this entirely in the notes app of my phone as well 😎😎
> 
> sequel to the fic before this in the series and it won’t make sense without reading that first!
> 
> title from lonesome town by ricky nelson
> 
> [first fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28004469)

The burn marks that sat on his face were light.

They weren’t heavy like they usually are. On the rare chances that someone manages to get the body out of the lava, they’re usually burnt to a crisp, ready to fall apart at a moments notice.

Tommy’s marks weren’t like that. They were like he just held a candle to his arm and then forgot. Like he sat too close to the lava and a couple bits of it just accidentally hit him.

They were different from Dream’s marks, the one that he hid underneath his gloves. Because when you fall into the lava and make it out alive, or when you trip and fall, the bit that had ended up in it ends up charred and burned. It ends up looking red forever, it ends up burnt forever.

(Because Dream had fallen into the lava when he was 15 and Tubbo was 11, when Tubbo was going to be the one to die. Dream had pulled him back and had taken his place, and the only evidence that had remained was the scars on his arm.)

Dream was the reason Tubbo knew what happens when you fall into lava, and he was also the reason Tubbo knew exactly how to try and heal someone from lava. But medicine doesn’t work on ghosts. They don’t work on something that you can’t touch, something that can act like nothing has happened.

“What are we doing today, Tubs?” Tommy asks him brightly, hovering beside him as he pulls on a suit. He doesn’t know how to say it softly, how to say it easily, so he just says it how it is.

“I’m going to your funeral.” He says, and Tommy blinks.

“What about me?” He asks, “What will I do?”

“I think that... that it’d be best if you stayed here and ignore anyone who came by.” He tells him, blinking back tears. “Wilbur will probably come to you, so you won’t be totally alone, I promise.”

(Wilbur was there, when he died. He had floated beside the two and watched as Tommy threw his life away, watched as Dream grinned and lifted his mask off his head for one final look.

“Everything.” Dream had said, holding his mask in his hands, and Tommy had looked at him. He had looked at him and Dream was nearly the last person he saw, but he had glanced at Wilbur for one final look before stepping off and falling.

And ghosts can’t move large objects. They can only move small ones, and they most certainly can’t catch a body falling through the air, no matter how hard they try.)

“Will you make sure Wilbur will come, though? Before you leave?” Tommy asks him, and he nods before he can hesitate.

“Of course.” He says softly, and when he leaves his room to go find a pair of shoes, the compass stays pointing back to his room (stays pointing back to Tommy).

He finds Wilbur outside in the grass, holding a flower in his hands, and when he asks, Wilbur agrees to stay with him.

“I remember how he looked.” Wilbur tells him, and Tubbo’s frown worsens. “I’ll stay with him any chance that I can.”

“Thank you.”

He continues on to the building, and when he stops outside, waiting, just a moment, Dream arrives then. His older brother.

“Hey, Tubbo.” Dream says softly, resting a hand on his shoulder, and no matter how hard he wants to flinch away, he holds himself back. “I know it’s hard for you, since Tommy killed himself. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask me, alright?”

“Don’t worry, Dream, I won’t.” He smiles up at his brother, and Dream lifts his mask to give him a soft smile of his own before pulling it back and walking inside. 

He had to use every bit of energy he has to not fall to the ground once Dream is gone. His hands are shaking, and there’s tears building in his eyes, but he doesn’t want Dream to see this and figure out his little plan.

“Tubbo, hey,” He hears, and when he looks up, Fundy and Sapnap are standing in front of him, and he doesn’t even hesitate before running into Fundy’s open arms. The man wraps his arms around him as he buries his face into his shoulder, and the tears drip down as Fundy and Sap do their best to calm him down.

“Here, c’mon, let’s go inside and get this over with, alright?” Fundy says softly, and he nods his head and pulls away slightly to let the man pull him along. Sap follows beside them quietly, and when they get inside and to the open room, he gives him a ruffle of his hair before going to sit by Dream.

Fundy leads Tubbo away from them, over to the near front, and they settle down with Niki quickly pulling him into a hug as well.

“It’ll be okay,” she whispers, and he nearly starts crying again. She’s like an older sister that he never had, and he couldn’t help but be grateful for her being here. “It’ll be over soon, and then we can leave.”

He nods, and leans into her as the funeral starts. It’s quiet, and calm, as his dad leads everything, and he’s nearly forgotten about the plan until Schlatt says something about how he’ll rest in peace (because Schlatt is the ghost who acts as the priest for times like these, for times when someone truly dies and they all need a way to lay them to rest) and that’s when the shouts echo through the building.

He stands up and turns with Niki, and Fundy gently pulls him over. He’s nearly numb, but he stares down at his brother as Sap and George hold him down and as Punz and Eret wraps the rope around his arms and legs and tie them all together.

“What the fuck? Why are you doing this? I haven’t done anything!” Dream protests, but they all stand over him, glaring. “I haven’t done anything! Tubbo, you have to believe me! They’re crazy, tying me up, you need to make them-“

“Shut up.” Tubbo says, and Dream shuts up. “Dream, you’re literally the worst person in this entire place. I don’t get how you can even defend yourself! You’re the reason people are dead. You’re the reason people that I’m close to, people that I love, are dead. You’re the reason Techno and Phil aren’t nearby anymore, and yet, you want to act like you’re some kind of god?

“You manipulate everyone around you. You’re the reason my childhood was horrible. You’re the reason my brother is dead.”

“Brother?” Dream interrupts him, “I’m not dead.”

“I wasn’t talking about you, Dream. I stopped viewing you as my brother the day that you started this whole mess.” Tubbo says angrily, and as he watches, he can see the gears turning in his head, can see the thoughts working.

“I didn’t kill Tommy.” Dream tells him. “Didn’t lay a single hand on him.”

“Dream, you say that as if we don’t know the true story.” He says, and Ranboo settles beside him, resting his hand on his shoulder, a welcome comfort. “You manipulated Tommy the day that you two left. You gaslighted him and made him feel weak, made him feel alone. You forced him into thinking that you were all he had left, and when you had finished, when you had completed your goal, you brought him to the Nether and made him kill himself.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it.” Dream says, gasping it out, and Tubbo nearly believes him. Nearly.

“Well either you’ve been a liar since the day I was born or Tommy suddenly developed a lying habit in between his death and the becoming of a ghost.” The shock that develops in Dream’s eyes fuel him, and when Dream’s mouth opens and nothing comes out, he can’t help but speak. “What? Cat got your tongue?”

“How do they know you’re not lying? How does everyone in this room know you’re telling the truth?” Dream asks, and Tubbo can hear the hint of desperation in his voice, can hear the beginning of panic behind his words.

“Because I’m not the one who told them everything.” He smiles down at Dream, and the man can only gape. “Anyways, Dream, you’re the one that told Tommy to die, right? Told him to kill himself? It may not have been in those exact words, but that’s what you said, right?”

When Dream doesn’t respond, and when Tubbo glances at Sap, the man doesn’t even hesitate before lifting Dream’s head and hitting it against the wooden bench.

“Answer his question, Dream.” Sapnap spits his name out as if it was poison, and Tubbo feels a swell of happiness at the fact that Sapnap would do this for him (the fact that he’s doing this for him). It seemed like yesterday Sap was going to kill Tubbo purely because Dream said so.

“Yeah, so what? It’s not like you can truly punish me, because he did it of his own free will.” Dream finally says, anger in his voice. “If you lock me up, it’ll be unjust, and eventually, I’ll break out.”

“Dream, you’re literally the leader of these lands, yet you don’t even know the laws well? I’m shocked.” Tubbo says, and it’s a struggle to keep the emotion out of his voice, to keep it hidden behind his words. “Because if you make someone kill themself, if you tell them to do it and you did it, that counts as murder. So, that means that my arresting of you is entirely just.”

“Arresting?” Dream exclaims, and Tubbo just nods.

“Have fun spending the rest of your life in prison, asshole.” He spits, and when Dream looks up at him, he grins.

Fundy wraps an arm around him and pulls him away, Ranboo following beside him, and when they make it outside, when they make it into the fresh air, he breathes.

“Holy fuck.” He rubs his eyes, and Ranboo wraps an arm around his shoulder and pulls him close. “Thank you, Ranboo.”

“Course.” Ranboo says, and when Tubbo glances back in the room, just for a moment, he finds Sapnap holding a knife to Dream’s neck and Quackity with an axe held behind his head.

“Can we go? I don’t think I’ll feel comfortable right here.” 

“Course.” Ranboo says, and quietly, Fundy leads the two of them away.

**Author's Note:**

> im tommyinnlt on tumblr!!


End file.
